Grassroots Indigenous Multi Media
Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia hopes to serve two broad populations with this project: collaboration among Dakota and Ojibwe people engaged in curriculum and documentation and give easy access to those who are looking for such resources. This will be accomplished by creating a web-based resource and a booklet that gathers, digitizes, organizes, and describes many of the curriculum materials and resources that are currently available.
Minnesota’s most enduring languages are in danger of disappearing. Without timely intervention, the use of Dakota and Ojibwe languages – like indigenous languages throughout the globe -- will decline to a point beyond recovery.
These languages embody irreplaceable worldviews. They express, reflect, and maintain communal connections and ways of understanding the world. Deeper than the disuse of vocabulary or grammar, the loss of an indigenous language is destruction of a complex system for ordering the relationships among people and the natural world, for solving social problems, and connecting people to something beyond themselves.
$550,000 the first year and $550,000 the second year are for grants for programs that preserve Dakota and Ojibwe Indian languages and to foster educational programs in Dakota and Ojibwe languages.
The goal for the year is to create a web-based resource and a booklet that gathers, digitizes, organizes, and describes many of the curriculum materials and resources that are currently available. Additionally, they hope to begin forming a network of material producers that are open to sharing materials and working collaboratively on future language revitalization efforts.
We debuted the website at the Minnesota Indigenous Languages Symposium, presenting formally in front of 14 people but having conversations about the site with many more. We also feature 27 posts with more being posted every week.